5. Nemo In 1966, at America's Tan Son Nhut airbase in Vietnam, airman Robert Throneburg was on security detail with his sentry dog Nemo. The German Shepherd sniffed out some Viet Cong in hiding for a coming attack on the base.

Throneburg was hit as he exchanged fire with the enemy; Nemo stayed by his side until help arrived, keeping the VC soldiers at bay and getting hit in the eye by a bullet. He was rewarded with retirement and a special cage at Lackland AFB in Florida near San Antonio.

N, please

4. N-wordThe Dam Busters is a classic WWII movie about RAF pilots who flew a specialized, highly dangerous mission to use skipbombs to blow up German dams. The airmen, in real life and in the movie, bonded emotionally with the outfit's pet dog, who died after being hit by a car the day before the mission. The dog's name was the code word sent back to England to notify higher-ups of success.

Unfortunately enough, the dog's name was Nigger. Because of wacky British humor and general attitudes towards dirty colonials, we suppose. It's sprinkled heavily throughout the movie, but is usually censored out these days.

A ferocious fighting machine

3. Smoky Discovered by an American soldier in a New Guinea foxhole, Smoky eventually flew along on a dozen air missions, sitting in a backpack near the chattering machine guns.

There are (somehow) six memorials around the country honoring Smoky, and her owner, Bill Wynne, wrote a book about their war adventures with the odd title Yorkie Doodle Dandy: Or, the Other Woman Was a Real Dog. 2. Sergeant Stubby The most decorated dog of the first World War, Sergeant Stubby actually won a battlefield promotion. He was injured by a hand grenade once, suffered in a poisonous gas attack another time, but continued to search No Man's Land for wounded comrades and to provide early warning of incoming shells.

In his retirement, he met three different presidents. But two of them were Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, so he probably wasn't too excited.

1. Horrie the Wog Dog If only for his name alone, Horrie the Wog Dog -- not quite as offensive a pet name as Nigger, but close enough -- merits inclusion on the list. A mascot of Australian forces, he gave early warning of air raids and was injured in the course of duty. He also survived a troopship sinking.

All that wasn't enough to prevent quarantine officials from refusing to allow him to enter Australia after the war. His owner smuggled him in anyway, but talked about him often enough that officials discovered the ruse and ordered him to be put down.

The owner substituted a look-alike dog and gave him up instead, and that dog, his no-doubt offensive name lost to history, took a bullet in the head for Horrie.